A Caring Leader

September 28, 1991

During Bernard Shapiro's watch at the state welfare department, he showed uncommon dedication to the principle that society had a duty to help less fortunate people. Mr. Shapiro, 83, died on Sept. 15 still passionately believing, in the words of the Old Testament, that we are our brothers' keepers.

To his critics, he was a bleeding-heart liberal who accepted no limits on programs. His budget battles with the Legislature were heated.

Yet Mr. Shapiro also fought with mothers on welfare over such pioneering programs as work-training, and with slumlords over substandard housing. He was denounced by physicians and pharmacists for imposing controls on payments and treatments.

Mr. Shapiro left Connecticut in 1969 at the request of his wife, who said she was more worn by the pressures of his job than he was. He became director of New York City operations of that state's Social Services Department and later was in charge of that state's Medicaid program. At every turn, he asked those who called welfare people lazy and dishonest to attack poverty, not the poor.